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The Jeff Ward Show

Why we make friends with our enemies on Facebook

If you're a Facebook user, chances are there are one or two people in your friends’ list that you wouldn’t want to spend time with in real life.

And a poll has discovered that the reason we keep these so-called ‘famicable’ friends on the site is purely so we can snoop on what they’re up to.

The survey found that 68 per cent of users have Facebook friends they don’t like - and almost half would actively avoid these people in the street.

But the group admitted they didn’t want to unfriend them because they wouldn’t be able to be nosey.

REASONS FOR KEEPING FRIENDS

When asked why users refuse to delete Facebook friends they don't like, the following reasons were:

1. I like to see what they’re up to - 69 per cent

2. They’re family, or a loved one’s family member - 57 per cent

3. They’re a colleague or former colleague that I need to stay in contact with - 54 per cent

4. They’d cause a scene if I deleted them as a friend - 50 per cent

5. Having them as a friend lets me see what others are doing, for example my children - 31 per cent

Other reasons included that the person was a family member, work colleague, or the ‘friend’ would cause a scene if they were deleted.

More than 2,570 American adults who regularly use social media took part in the poll, which quizzed them about how they used their social media accounts.

All respondents in the Money saving site CouponCodesPro survey were asked to reveal how many Facebook friends they had at the time of the poll, and the average was 671.

When asked how many contacts on the site they would consider to be true friends, respondents said an average of just 18 - not even 3 per cent of their entire friends list.

All respondents were then asked to elaborate, and when asked ‘Are you friends with anyone on social media that you dislike but are falsely amicable with online?’, more than two thirds (68 per cent) said yes.